Adaptation of actomyosin ATPase in different types of muscle to endurance exercise.

Higher concentrations of actomyosin were found in the red portion of the vastus lateralis and in the white portion of the vastus lateralis muscle than in the soleus or heart in rats. A strenuous program of treadmill running lasting 18 wk or longer did not significantly affect the amount of actomyosin recovered from the different types of muscle. No changes in actomyosin ATPase occurred in fast-twitch white (white vastus) or heart muscles in response to the exercise training. In contrast, a decrease of approximately 20% occurred in the specific activity of actomyosin ATPase of fast-twitch red (red vastus) muscle (0.635 +/- 0.029 mumol Pi/min per milligram for sedentary vs. 0.529 +/- 0.021 mumol Pi/min per milligram for trained), while the actomyosin ATPase activity of slow-twitch red (soleus) muscle increased about 20% (0.209 +/- 0.033 vs. 0.257 +/- 0.031 mumol Pi/min per milligram). There was a close correlation (r = 0.99, P less than 0.001) between actomyosin ATPase activity and phosphofructokinase activity in the three types of skeletal muscles and in heart muscle of exercise-trained and untrained animals, providing further evidence in support of the concept that the glycogenolytic capacity of a muscle and its actomyosin ATPase activity are regulated in parallel.